


Side-Quests

by reafterthought



Category: Deltora Quest - Emily Rodda
Genre: Background characters - Freeform, Freeverse, Gen, Poetry, ffn challenge: 100 prompts challenge, ffn challenge: 5 10 20 50 70 100 fandoms challenge, ffn challenge: freeverse frenzie competition, minor characters - Freeform, moments in time, poetry collection, word count: 1001-1500 words
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-14
Updated: 2018-06-19
Packaged: 2019-05-25 11:17:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 1,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14976032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reafterthought/pseuds/reafterthought
Summary: Outside the main quest we saw, there were things that defined a person, a place or a time.





	1. Ava and the Sea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had trouble coming up with a title, something that rarely happens after I've actually finished a "chapter". So I picked Side-Quests in the end, something to illustrate that, while the characters in this poem collection may have directly or indirectly influenced Lief's quest(s), the scenes in which I depict them in are related to them somewhat independent of that quest. For example, Ava's love for the sea may have caused her to build and maintain her shop so close to the Isle of the Dead, but her love for the sea in and of itself wasn't something that directed that quest.
> 
> Aside from that, this poem is a part of the 100 prompts challenge on the Poetry Craze, prompt #012 – tide, and for the 5,10,20,50,70,100 fandoms challenge, fandom 59: Deltora Quest 3, and for the Freeverse Frenzie Competition, poem 50.
> 
> Enjoy.

The waters climbed her walls  
and then fell back  
into caves that reached  
far below.

Even her sight could not reach  
that far – or at all the body  
of salty air which rumbled  
louder than the gulls squawking  
all round.

She could imagine it though,  
from the photos her dear blood  
sent to her, and by her  
ever-listening ears

And she was fine with staying  
in its blind embrace,  
privy instead  
to a different sort  
of sight.


	2. Queen Sharn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This poem is a part of the 100 prompts challenge on the Poetry Craze, prompt #020 – queen, and for the 5,10,20,50,70,100 fandoms challenge, fandom 60: Deltora Quest 2, and for the Freeverse Frenzie Competition, poem 59.
> 
> This one is Sharn when Lief and everyone else were out trying to accomplish something, and Sharn was at the castle worrying.
> 
> Enjoy.

Her crown was just  
a dead weight  
upon her skull,  
held up by piles of hair  
and a lifted chin.

She was not one of those painted dolls  
of the palace halls of old  
and yet…

And yet she could do nothing  
save watch with worried eyes  
from behind that glassy wall.


	3. Kinrest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This poem is a part of the 100 prompts challenge on the Poetry Craze, prompt #024 – history, and for the 5,10,20,50,70,100 fandoms challenge, fandom 61: Deltora Quest 1.
> 
> Kinrest, after the death of Doom of the Hills.
> 
> Enjoy.

It was an echo  
that still  
remained

Long after  
the blood  
had been washed  
from the soil  
and new buds  
arose:

That sadness  
that ran  
under the river  
Earth  
and was carved  
into stone

That could  
never be  
forgotten.


	4. The Four Horses

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This poem is a part of the 100 prompts challenge on the Poetry Craze, prompt #005 – follow

Four horses left the stables together  
with three riders and the wind  
and an entourage behind them.

Four horses bolted together  
when the fire burned the backs  
and their hooves.

Four horses stumbled together  
into the lair of a snake  
and four hours were caught.

Four horses whined together  
when they saw their old masters  
too far away, and yet  
still too close

And four horses happily neighed  
when, far latter but for those  
same masters, they were freed  
to carry three riders  
and the wind  
once more.


	5. The Silent Forest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This poem is a part of the 100 prompts challenge on the Poetry Craze, prompt #031 – silence

After the blood stopped dripping,  
there was silence.  
He'd deafened them all  
with a single blow.  
His sword sharp enough  
and his arm strong enough  
to strike down leaves  
from afar

And now's the time to spring the trap  
so they don't struggle on  
so they don't even quiver now,  
don't breathe  
in their shock, and choke  
when they do start to breathe  
and struggle in their new confines  
so silently, he forgets  
they're still alive

Because he is the only living one  
amidst the still arena  
he's made.


	6. Arrow in the Sky

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This poem is a part of the 100 prompts challenge on the Poetry Craze, prompt #044 – high

When their flying prey left the skies  
they kept their gazes low  
to the ground

Because what was there in the sky  
except the teasing sun  
and the rolling black clouds  
that choked them.

Now, though, they'd set their  
golden arrow loose  
and so they looked  
towards the sky  
again, waiting  
for a golden glint that wasn't  
the sun, or a famous  
palace tale

And, finally, one day  
amidst the newly returned birds  
and sour-sixteen clouds  
they saw it: the golden arrow  
calling them  
once more.


	7. The Forests

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This poem is a part of the 100 prompts challenge on the Poetry Craze, prompt #040 –burden

Travellers didn't go to the forests.  
There was a demon amongst the trees,  
they said: a bird  
that flittered through the branches,  
a beast that howled  
through the trunks.

There were all manner of monsters,  
all manner of poisons,  
all manner of bewitching spells  
to be found.

They couldn't map it all.  
They ran

But for them, who couldn't run  
anywhere else, they stayed  
and made their home  
and became one of  
the monstrous fables  
of that place.


	8. A Pirate's Loyalty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This poem is a part of the 100 prompts challenge on the Poetry Craze, prompt #094 – kill

They polluted the seas,  
banded together  
on planks of driftwood

And they were just driftwood  
themselves.

They cut off the rotten bits  
and plugged the holes,  
toss them overboard  
and away the boat goes.


	9. The Three Outsiders

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This poem is a part of the 100 prompts challenge on the Poetry Craze, prompt #054 – normal

They were all so very different,  
from each other  
and from the world  
as well.

One of them basked  
in that difference.  
One of them  
was indifferent  
and one just longed  
to be a part  
of the fold

But they only drifted further  
and alone.


	10. Winner

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This poem is a part of the 100 prompts challenge on the Poetry Craze, prompt #057 – strategy

They wanted to come out on top  
of these games.

It wasn't the crown,  
or the medals they'd wear  
around their necks  
or the sacks of gold –

No, it was the sacks of gold  
that they'd take back,  
turn into water, and food  
and lovely clothes  
the likes they can't afford.

They wanted to come out on top.  
They had to come out on top.  
And they'd do their best,  
they'd find the route  
that'd take them  
to the top.


	11. Rice Fields

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This poem is a part of the 100 prompts challenge on the Poetry Craze, prompt #053 – grain

Once upon a time he'd sung  
as he cut the grain  
but now he was too old.  
He hobbled along,  
sat at his seat and hammered  
metal and flames  
and watched his little granddaughter  
with a cutter taller than her  
cutting grains  
above her head.

It was dangerous work  
for a delicate child  
but she soldiered through,  
because it was their livelihood

And as hard as it was for her,  
in a farm too big for her and  
a guardian too old and worn,  
there were people with less,  
or more.


	12. Contracts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This poem is a part of the 100 prompts challenge on the Poetry Craze, prompt #056 – condition

So few people read the fine print.  
So few people slipped the net  
he cast

And that suited him just fine;  
he threw the net,  
he wanted fish  
to be caught

And once they were caught,  
juicy, wriggling –  
he kept them,  
he didn't let them go  
till they were drained  
of every drop  
of blood  
they could give.


	13. Unnamed Grave

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This poem is a part of the 100 prompts challenge on the Poetry Craze, prompt #058 – mark

Too many people died, forgotten.  
Too many people vanished, forgotten.  
Too many people were never born  
and never known

So when that man, the only man  
he still recalled, passed away,  
he wrote it  
on the walls

So, at least, that man would  
not be forgotten.


	14. Hiding in Plain Sight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This poem is a part of the 100 prompts challenge on the Poetry Craze, prompt #046 – death

He wondered if he'd ever see them  
again; a man he'd loved  
but hadn't seen in years  
and a woman  
he'd only just met  
and their unborn child…

Their unborn child was locked away,  
soon to be born  
in a shadowed world, thinly veiled…

Hopefully their veil would be enough.  
And hopefully, that friend  
he didn't deserve, after this,  
wasn't marching  
to his death.


	15. In a Safe Place

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This poem is a part of the 100 prompts challenge on the Poetry Craze, prompt #043 – languish

It was too safe,  
too warm.  
She was in a secure cage  
and she couldn't go outside.

She was a bird.  
She needed to stretch her legs,  
stretch her wings.  
It was all too stuffy here;  
she needed to dance  
beneath the sun.

There's a fog outside  
and shadows; they're always there  
she knows, and yet  
she can't stay  
anymore.

It was choking her,  
crushing her, and she needed  
to be swift  
and gone.


	16. The Polite Farm Boy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This poem is a part of the 100 prompts challenge on the Poetry Craze, prompt #041 – amiable

He'd been so sweet and innocent,  
like he'd been tucked away,  
wrapped in wool

But there was no place to be tucked away  
so safe, in this world.

He was friendly. He was kind.  
He was naïve, but he could fight  
and he was smart; he'd studied,  
he'd learnt…

But there was something odd,  
something that tickled  
in his mind.

He trusted him.  
He wanted to trust him  
but there was something…  
He couldn't say what.

Like his past sometimes nagged…

Maybe they were related.  
Maybe they weren't.  
Maybe there was nothing there  
at all. He'd met another boy  
after all, equally polite,  
equally smart, equally studied

And there was something about him too  
and not just the gleaming belt  
around his waist.


	17. The Shop on the Water

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This poem is a part of the 100 prompts challenge on the Poetry Craze, prompt #023 – ocean

She couldn't see the ocean  
but she could hear  
its waves, and no whispers  
in the air

And she's at peace,  
a peace unlike the crowds  
where they stared  
and whispered behind their hands  
like she was deaf  
instead of blind…

But she didn't need her eyes  
to hear.


	18. Strong Woman

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This poem is a part of the 100 prompts challenge on the Poetry Craze, prompt #034 – blow

Maybe it was complacency  
that saw her fall.

She'd gotten far enough,  
finally, into the final eight  
and she was there, so close –  
too close, perhaps; she'd been blinded  
in its gleam.

He'd caught her, like a schoolgirl  
running in her frock  
under the sun.

Her lungs burned from the stronghold.  
Her cheeks, though, they burned  
in shame.


	19. The Book of Deltora

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This poem is a part of the 100 prompts challenge on the Poetry Craze, prompt #036 – transpire

He'd seen long ago  
what would come, a shadow  
across the land, blotting  
out the son  
and a boy, young and brave  
and from the masses, rising up  
like a rainbow of colours  
to touch the son  
and push the shadows back –

And he'd seen that belt  
with seven jewels  
bound together.  
around his waist.


End file.
